Today's common web service architecture provides multiple services within a single infrastructure. Enterprises with common needs are also coming together to share infrastructure and business processes. An advantage of this approach is that each involved party pays only a fraction of the entire cost involved. The above-incorporated patent applications disclose a storage grid architecture that optimizes storage utilization by “gridifying” storage cells within a common environment/infrastructure. This type of structure not only provides redundancy, but also takes performance-based parameters such as storage capacity, user requirements, etc., into consideration when selecting a file sharing location.
A grid environment/infrastructure provides flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing among a dynamic collection of individuals, institutions, etc. It is distinguished from conventional distributed (enterprise) computing by its focus on large-scale resource sharing, innovative applications, and, in some cases, high-performance orientation. The collection of individual resources and institutions that contribute resources to a particular grid, and/or use the resources in that grid, is referred to as a virtual organization and represents a new approach to computing and problem solving based on collaboration among multiple disciplines in computation and data-rich environments.
Unfortunately, none of the existing approaches addresses or resolves the conflict that exists between grid environment stability and updateability. That is, as nodes are added to the grid environment, stability is improved, while updateability becomes more difficult. Conversely, if the grid includes fewer nodes, updateability is made easier, while stability suffers.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need to overcome one or more of the deficiencies in the existing art.